DESIGNMIND

ARCHITECTING A DATA WAREHOUSE

A CASE STUDY
Project: zBis
Carl Zeiss Vision North America

ELIZABETH DIAMOND
DATA WAREHOUSE ARCHITECT, DESIGNMIND

SAN FRANCISCO SQL SERVER USER GROUP

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009
Tonight’s Speaker

Elizabeth Diamond

Senior Data Warehousing and BI Consultant

DesignMind in Emeryville, CA

Specialist in Enterprise Data Management Systems

Lead Data Warehouse Architect and ETL Developer

Author and Speaker

Building the Connection Between Your Business and Your IT
Infrastructure

Developing Your Enterprise Data Warehouse Using Business
Processes

Tonight’s Topic: Architecting a Data Warehouse

The Journey

Determined Need for Enterprise Data Warehouse

Worked with Business Users to Understand Business
Requirements

Determined Software Requirements

MS SQL Server 2005 & 2008

MS SSIS (ETL Tool)

MS SSAS (Analytic Cube Tool)

MS SSRS & Excel (Reporting Tools)

SharePoint for Deploying Reports over Company
Intranet

Designed and Developed zBis Data Warehouse
Z BIS = What We Will Deliver

This project team will deliver the following:

X

Consolidated reporting for Carl Zeiss Vision
North America
X

Reporting that is consistent and from one
data warehouse
X

Reporting that is easy to use and easy to
access
X

Toolset will be flexible and able to grow and
change with our business
X Phase I rock solid download from ERP/Manf


– Providing ability to review lab information
as a lab network – not individual silos – with
accurate reporting across all products and
services
We will deliver the best product possible based on the information we
can place in our data warehouse!
• Reporting from cubes – off source systems only –
No data warehouse

• Disparate data systems with different results from

each

• Most systems not balanced to GL

• Reporting for each business unit only

• No reporting across all business units

 Transactional Cube of Approach
Sales Queries Other Reports Sales Reports

Corporate

Download
Data Mart Data Mart Data Mart
Finance Inventory Sales & Marketing

ETL Loads

ETL Load

ODS/Staging
Operational Data Store

ETL Load

ERP Manufacturing Other

 BI Tools/Analytics Active
Excel Static Reports
Reports

PerformancePoint Server

SharePoint

SQL
SQL Analytics
Reporting
Server (SSAS)
Server

Aggregated Finance Inventory

Sales
Data Mart Data Mart Data Mart
Data Mart
TBD

ETL Load (SSIS)

Data Warehouse

ETL Load (SSIS)

ODS/Staging
Operational Data Store

ETL Load (SSIS)

ERP Manufacturing SW Other Data Sources

Introduction to Data Warehousing

What is a Data Warehouse System

Why a Data Warehouse Vs. Cubes on Source Systems

Star Schema Vs. Transactional Data Warehouses

Star Schemas ease of system integrating

Star Schemas provide substantial performance gains

Star Schemas hierarchy capabilities or Drill Down
Capabilities

Ralph Kimball Developed Current Industry Standards for Star
Schema – Dimensions and Facts
 Data Warehouse Project Lifecycle
Technical Product
Architecture Selection &
Design Installation
Project
Business Data Staging Testing
Planning Dimensional Physical
Requirement Design & ETL & Deployment Maintenance
Modeling Design
Definition Development DW/DM

Report Report Report

Specifications Development Testing

Project Management
4 + 1 – Steps
Dimensional Design Process
Ralph Kimball’s Process for Developing Star Schemas
1. Determine Business Process

Model business Processes

Each Process will determine 1 or more Facts

Design DW by Business Process Not Business Unit
2. Identify the Grain of the Fact
• What does 1 row in Fact table represent
• Transactional or Summary
3. Design the DW Dimensions
4. Design the DW Facts
+1 Determine Hierarchies
Business Driven vs. Data Driven

Design DW/BI System via Business Process

Develop DW/BI System via Data from Source Systems

Profile Data as early as possible

Understand data and design DW using existing data

Design & Develop using both Business Process and available

Data if possible
Understanding Your Business

Identify key business sponsors for DW project

Use Corporate Org Chart

Setup initial interviews with key sponsors

Develop Business Process diagrams

Develop high level Use Case Diagrams

Determine Business Hierarchies

The Business Executive Interview
• What are the objectives of your organization?

• What Business goals do you want to accomplish with the

development of zBis data warehouse System?

• How do you measure success? How do you know you are doing
well? How often do you measure your corporate performance?

• What are your key business issues that you are trying to solve
from the zBis system? If these issues are not justified what is the
impact to your department and organization?
The Business Executive Interview
• How do you identify problems or know when you might be
headed for trouble?

• How do you spot exceptions in your business? What

opportunities exist to dramatically impact your business based
on improved access to information? What is the financial
impact

• If you could….., What would it mean to your business?

• What is your vision to better leverage information within your

organization?

• How do you anticipate that your staff will interact directly with
this information?
The Business Manager Interview
• What are the objectives of your department?

• What are you trying to accomplish? How would do you go

about achieving your objectives?
• What are your success metrics?

• How do you know you are doing well?

• How often do you measure your department/team?

• How do you anticipate that your staff will interact directly with
this information?
Business Process Diagrams

Understand Business Requirements for building
DW/BI system.

Defines the Measures and Dimensions for data

warehouse
Determine Hierarchies

Customer Hierarchies – Sales Channels

Distribution Channels

Business Channels

Customer Channels

Product Divisions

Sales Organizations

Sales Office

Buy Groups/Directly Purchase
Determine Hierarchies

Product Hierarchy

Manufacturer

Brand

Product Type – Each product type had own Hierarchy

Lens

Service

Equipment

etc…

Design

Make/Model
Determine Hierarchies

Geo Hierarchy

Sales Division

Sales Region

Sales Territory
Conformed Dimensions

Standardized dimensions across data warehouse

Dimensions are associated with multiple business
processes

Determine by using Bus Matrix & enforced in ETL

Conformed Dimensions are shared and consistent
across fact tables
Use Data Warehouse BUS Matrix

Use Data Warehouse BUS Matrix for

Understanding & mapping of Business Processes and
Dimensions

Ongoing DW/BI planning efforts

Team & Management Communications

Understand Business Process unions across the enterprise
Data Warehouse BUS Matrix
Date Company Customer Product Geo Dist Ctr Promo
Company X X X X X X
Sales
Customer X X X X X X
Discounts
Product X X X X X X X
Cost
Company X X X
Inventory
Dist Ctr X X X
Inventory
Develop Dimensional Schema
Slow Changing Dimensions

Type 1 – Overwrite existing Dimension Row

Use when don’t need to keep history data row

Can be used to correct bad data

Type 2 – Create a new Dimension Row

Use date and/or active non-active fields to identify current
and inactive data rows

Type 3 – Keep old and add new attributes in Dimension Row

Allow Alternate realities to exist simultaneously in one
Dimension Row

Slow Changing Dimensions are handled in the ETL
Type of Dimensions

Mini-Dimension

Junk Dimensions

Outrigger Dimensions

Small Static Dimensions

Lookup tables
Type of Facts

Transaction Fact Tables

Snapshot Fact Tables

Accumulating Snapshot Fact Tables

Consolidated or Aggregated Fact Tables
Bridge Tables
Bridge Tables
Recommended Reading list

The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional
Modeling (Second Edition) by Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross

The MicrosoftData Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server2005 and the

MicrosoftBusiness Intelligence Toolset by Joy Mundy, Warren
Thornthwaite, and Ralph Kimball

Building a Data Warehouse: With Examples in SQL Server (Expert's Voice)

by Vincent Rainardi

The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit by Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross,

Warren Thornthwaite, and Joy Mundy

The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Extracting,

Cleanin by Ralph Kimball and Joe Caserta
Elizabeth Diamond
Senior Data Warehouse Architect

DesignMind
Emeryville, CA
www.designmind.com
 www.bayareasql.org

To attend our meetings or inquire about speaking opportunities,

please contact:

Mark Ginnebaugh, User Group Leader mark@designmind.com